Story Dump
by MisplacedSanity
Summary: Because there's always a before. A collection of story fails pre-Fanfiction. started but never finished, forever mouldering away.
1. The Story Called Fail

_Story Dump_

_This is basicly just a mish-mash rable of things I started and never was completed on a RPing website called HEXrpg. Most of it is some of my story writing pre-Fanfiction so it really isn't the greatest. Line breaks indicate where my RP partner (Ichigo) came in with her part. The story below was a small idea of Bleach from Rukia's point of view -which had a rather crappy title, might I add- so um enjoy? Please humor me and review my fail._

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><p>Night. The dark hours in which all life is silent, still, awaiting the new day, lost in a world of its own. If only it stood safe to say to label that notion to all life. I sighed as I brushed a stray hair from my face, no not everything was at a peaceful rest. Unbeknownst to the human eye the town that lay below me, illuminated in the eerie full moon light, like a grey-blue patchwork quilt, was constantly shifting with activity. Energy and activity at different levels, from the harmlessly weak to the dangerously powerful. I shifted my stance, my hand unconsciously gripped the hilt of my zanpakto. It was odd, odd that my superiors had sent me to this district, which contained an alarming amount of energy despite my rank, but who was I to complain? an order was an order, something that needed to be completed as quickly and efficiently as possible: there was no room for mistakes.<p>

But, to business, or rather to responsibility. I slowly closed my eyes and steadied my breathing, focusing on the more concerning entity I had vaguely sensed earlier, shutting out the influence of others. There!

"It's here."

My eyes flashed open again as I leapt forward off the post I was standing upon, my hand gripping my blade in a vice grip as a sense of excitement and anxiety tore through me in equal form. Years of training, trial and error prepared for these moments. I landed, in midair, and tested the surrounding area, searching for my target. CRASH If i couldn't find it on my own there's always other ways of locating. Hollows. Not the most subtle of spiritual creatures, either blundering about or trailing a traces of spiritual pressure for miles around.

I lept again and landed on a roof top just above the creature, a brute about ten feet tall and looking like an enormous lizard on two legs. Its grey-black tongue flickered out as it chuckled slowly to itself.

"So, you found me, eh? Nice job I suppose and all that conversational rubbish" it said in a greasy voice as it turned its reptilian head to face me, its skull-like mask expressionless," but finding me and fighting me are two different things. But before I kill you Soul Reaper let me courteous enough to ask your name?"

"Kill me, you said? I'd love to see you try, you scum. I suppose I shouldn't ignore your polite request, Hollow. My name is Rukia Kuchiki, and I'm here to kill you"

The skull-mask grinned in response, "Bring it."

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><p>My sword swung, once, twice, three times through the air, my face contorting with rage as the hollow before me dodged the blows, grinning and laughing stupidly as if it were some sort of game I had initiated with it. "Come on, Soul Reaper! You can do so much better than that! I thought you said you could catch me?" it laughed hoarsely, its snake-like tongue lashing at the air, nearly slapping me full on in the face. Careless. The blade came down a fourth time in a current of silvery air, sending the appendage spinning through the air and out of sight.<p>

The hollow stopped dead to stare in surprise at the stump of what was once a functioning organ, its skull-mask slowly twisting into an expression of annoyance. "What a dirty, underhand trick!" it rasped, "Is that how you people do things over there on the other side?" I snorted in slight humor at the question, "Sometimes, if it must come to such measures. But you hollows are not so much better." The hollow stared coldly back at me, the glowing orbs it had for eyes fixed in a deadly stare. I'd seen that look one too many times before and knew what was coming next almost immediately after.

"Is that so, huh? Well then, I guess you wouldn't mind it so much if I did this!" Its huge body surged forward, its mouth gaping, displaying double rows of sharp jagged teeth. "Youuuur'e deeead!" It roared as it rushed forward, its mass and velocity on par with that of a locomotive. Exactly what I was waiting for. Extremely predictable. I waited, timing its charge, waiting for the right time to move out of the way of this reckless bullet train with teeth. It was a mere feet away when I finally leapt into the air, catching the look of surprise on its beastly features before I brought my blade down onto its head with a loud cracking noise, splitting its skull-mask in two and instantaneously disintegrating its body into a fine dust.

I gave an exasperated sigh as I sheathed my weapon, praying that that was the last agenda on the hideously long to-do list they had given me. I was tired, practically exhausted beyond words and needed some form of break. What was it that the humans called it? Right, a vacation, or something along those lines. But no, my superiors had other ideas for how I should be spending my time. The small gadget I was given before parting from the Soul Society vibrated madly in my pocket, telling me it was used for orders, what konsos that needed to be carried out and which hollows that needed to be destroyed and that the design was based on this words modern and most up-to-date cell phones, to which I just nodded at. I hadn't a clue what a cell phone was.

I fished my hand around in my pocket, cursing orders and cell phones until I managed to find the small device and glanced at its tiny, glowing screen: another hollow, just north-west of my current location in a small community. I sighed again, this time in frustration. Hopefully this wasn't going to be too much to take care of.

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><p>I dashed toward the general direction of the hollow, still grumbling about late-night orders. Never any rest! Always work, work, work! But then again I wasn't personally assigned to anything to anything as large as this. Count your blessings or some saying like that, but I was starting to rethink this whole assignment as a refuse, a bottom of the barrel job. And I got stuck with it.<p>

A huge snarling suddenly brought me back to my senses: hollow. The monster was crouched over a small half-demolished house and what looked like its inhabitance, their features indistinct from my vantage point, unable to discern whether they were the average spirit or human. One of the figures rose charging fearlessly toward the beast with a flimsy makeshift weapon in hand before being knocked back, the weapon crushed beneath the hollow's foot, snapping to pieces under in enormous weight. The creature moved forward, speaking in a strangled high-pitched voice, its mouth hanging open ready to devour its prey.

If it hadn't been moving so slow, so deliberately I wouldn't have been able to catch its attention in time. I moved in front of the hollow, sword raised, slashing the inside of the creature's mouth causing it to reel backward, shrieking in pain and splattering blood over the street. "_You!_" it howled in its screeching voice, the glowing orbs it had for eyes narrowed to hard slits, "_How dare you! Interrupting my meal, you'll pay with your own life! And then I'll move on to my main course! You're just the appetizer!_" It flicked its huge, whip-like tail sending it crashing against my blade, the many horns that studded its length screeching against the metal the force of it nearly knocking me off my feet.

I quickly glanced at the hollow's would-be prey, half-tempted to tell him to run, to grab his family and run, to get to safety while I could still hold the creature off and keep it distracted. But it would be all for nothing: he couldn't see me. If anything it would be perhaps the shimmering outline of the hollow, but not me. The tail flicked again, one of the notched horns gauging into my shoulder, nearly making me drop my weapon. Dropped my guard for too long, shameful mistake to make while exchanging blows face-to-face with a hollow. But the vaguest thought had come to me.

Maybe, even though all the rules said otherwise, he could see me. I hadn't notice before but even though his appearance suggested that he was an average human the unnaturally high aura that came off him. Too high for a human, much too high.

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><p>"You have to trust me on this, it's risky but it's the only way." I stopped to think about what I was saying. Him? Trust me? We'd just only met. No more than just to people passing the other in the street, minus the savage beast that was intent on taking our lives to satisfy its hunger. Not to mention what I was about to attempt was strictly prohibited.<p>

But he and his family had been attacked. I myself had been injured. Despiration and survial makes you do crazy things.

"Listen to me. If you want to save your family and yourself, there's only one option I can provide you with. You may or may not survive this if you accept. But it doesn't hurt to try," I swung my blade foward, towards him, the point trembling slightly, "Take my power. Use it to defend your family. I'll only give you half of it but it should be enough for this fight and it will be temporary. If you lose, we are all done for."

No greater pursuaion than that, I think. The need to live really makes you do crazy things.

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><p>I thrust the sword roughly into the center of his chest before he could ask any more questions, his eyes momentarily widened in surprise at the blade that protruded from his chest. But then an enormous light blazed, blinding the both of us illuminating the surrounding street, seemingly to leech the color from the entire area. But I also realized something else had happened, something that wasn't supposed to happen, something that never should have happened: a sudden sensation, like some weight had been taken off my shoulders, like I was missing something important.<p>

The light cleared, drawing back like a curtain revealing the end result: he stood, all fear from before gone replaced by a sort of gritty determination, the clothes he had before replaced by the standard Soul Reaper uniform. And the sword, the zanpakto, doubled, no tripled in size. The enormous blade, almost as long as he was tall, resting against his shoulder, the hilt almost as thick as wrist.

"Wh- what?" I murmured softly. This wasn't right. Something completely wrong had happened. This wasn't supposed to happen. I looked down at myself; the previously black robes I'd been wearing, the same robes he now wore, were now a stark white. The power I had promised him was no longer mine; he'd taken all of it, leaving me disempowered.

He roared madly, rushing forward at the hollow holding the ridiculously large blade awkwardly in both hands, and with a single stroke sliced its arm clean off. The hollow screamed angrily, its voice echoing off the walls and rattling glass windows.

"Finish him off! Aim for the head!" I yelled.

He bellowed again, impaling the creatures face with the tip of the zanpakto, shattering its mask, the body disintegrating into a fine dust that was swept away by a nonexistent breeze. The boy straightened up, wheezing and panting slightly then wobbled slightly and toppled over with a dull _THUD_.

"H-hey! You- uh, um - Boy! Are you alright?" I called again, rushing to his side and shook his shoulders and slapped his face, trying to get some sort of reaction, anything that could determine that he didn't die from overexposure or something along those lines. He grunted slightly then rolled over onto his side with a muffled snore: he'd passed out from exhaustion. I sighed in relief as I sat back and glanced at the sword he still had clutched in his hand; where did this put me now?

"Hey there. Need some help?"

"Huh!" I yelped, staring around the street looking for the source of the voice and saw a man walking casually down the street toward us, his wooden sandals clacking muted on the asphalt, a knowing smile on his face as he adjusted his hat.

"I asked if you needed any help, Soul Reaper."

"And if I do?" I replied carefully.

"I'd be glad to lend you some. Get him back in his body," he gestured vaguely at the boy snoring on the ground beside me," fix up his family's injuries and give 'em a memory wipe, give you a few supplies including a gigai. No price required! It's on the house!" He finished in a salesman-like manner.

"And I should trust you with this, why?" The words falling out in a rush from my mouth. The offer was tempting but. . .

"Because I'm the only help with this you have." He replied darkly.

I narrowed my eyes, returning the dark expression, "Fine. I'll accept. But, really. Who are you?"

He consider the question for a moment before replying in an honest tone of voice, "Just a humble owner of a cruddy little candy shop not too far from here, eking out a living the best I can like the rest of us mortals."

I narrowed my eyes again. "Right."

"So. What are you gonna do about _him_?" He said pointing to the sleeping figure on the ground again. "You have a plan, right?"

I looked at him for a moment, weighing my options. Stay? Don't stay? I'd nowhere to go now. "Of course I do. I'll stay with him. If I don't who knows what will happen. Look at the zanpakto, if I don't supervise him he'll take out a building with that thing: it's just not normal. He shouldn't be left alone with a power like his now that he has access to it. It's better if I stay."

The man chuckled, "I do admit that size is pretty odd. But you do know what it means so you better watch out for him and the people around him. That size of power, he's unstable.

"So as I was saying!" he started up again in his salesman banter. I could not help but rolling my eyes at his wind up phrase. "You wait here and I'll straighten things out here and then we'll go and get that gigai fitted out for you!"

I rolled my eyes again. "Fine."

* * *

><p>As I predicted this high school thing was going to be way too easy, entering myself into the attendance record and passing myself as the innocent exchange student, the redundant homework assignments. Nothing I couldn't handle, but of course for all the assignments the school system had laid out for its students there was one thing that mattered for me to complete.<br>I listened to lessons, half interested, the teacher's voice a mindless buzz that was hardly making sense. No wonder teenagers hated high school; teachers made the subjects seem dull through explanation, too many numbers to calculate in mathematics, far too many events in the history of this world, language just dull altogether. I found myself staring at the clock more than once, waiting for the signal that halted the end of the never-ending madness.

Finally, just when I thought that the explanation of the difference between nouns and pronouns wouldn't end, a shrill buzzing filled the air and was immediately drowned by the shuffling of papers and the screeching of chairs on linoleum floors. I followed suit and turned to the notes scattered on my own desk, shuffling then together and tucking them carefully back into my bag and headed out through the classroom door and into the steady crowd of other students heading to the front doors of the building.  
>I hurried down the hall to the nearest staircase and quickly climbed the stairs to the roof of the school. I decided earlier as I waited impatiently as the school secretary looked over the faked records I handed her that the best place to meet with that boy from yesterday was here on the school roof. It was secluded yet accessible to students, perfect meeting place and had a great view of the surrounding town.<p>

The door to the staircase rattled loudly behind me, swinging open with a bang. "WHAT ARE _YOU DOING HERE?_" he yelled in a strangled voice, his eyes wide with fury.  
>"So, I'm guessing you read my note, eh? Isn't that what you teenagers do when you want something know by someone but want to keep it a secret? Very effective means of communication, but I see many flaws with using it. But to answer your question I need to clear up a few things that happened yesterday, so sit down and let me explain them."<p>

He grumbled something about being bossy before sitting down cross-legged, looking exactly like a frustrated child. "Fine, talk away, I'm listening," he grunted.  
>"Thank you for your patience," I replied sarcastically as I fished through my bag for my drawing pad and a marker, "You can see ghosts correct?"<br>He nodded sheepishly "Yeah I can. So?"  
>"There's two types of ghosts that inhabit this world, wholes, the type you usually see," I drew my interpretation of a whole spirit and showed it to him," they're the ghost commonly classified as 'good spirits' and then there's the hollows, the spirit you saw and killed yesterday. Hollows have skull-like masks for faces and a single hole through their chests and eat both wholes and the spirits of the living." I turned the page of the drawing pad and quickly drew a hollow and flipped it over to show him, "With me so far?"<p>

". . . umm, yeah. . ."

"Good. You see, I'm from the other side, the Soul Society and I'm charged with the task of crossing over wholes and destroying hollows, the two main jobs of a Soul Reaper. But . . . uhm," I shifted my shoulders uncomfortably. "I'm afraid when I lent my powers to you yesterday . . . um. . . I only meant for half of them. But you seem to have taken all of them."

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><p>You! But why not? You're the one who accepted my powers in the first place! My powers and my responsibility now that you've taken all of them! Why not!" I spat at his retreating back. "You protected your family with them! It shouldn't be too hard to-"<br>He spun back around, "That's because that was my  
><em>family<em>. I'm not gonna do this for complete strangers. You can just get one of your Soul Reaper buddies to fill out the job for you 'till you're ready to get out of here."  
>"So you decline?"" I said slowly<br>"I don't decline, I refuse."  
>"If that's so I don't think I've any other option then," I said carefully as I began to grope around my bag again, "Hmm, where'd I put it? Oh! Here it is!"<br>"Huh? What'd you think you're doing? I told you I didn't want to take your job. Stop trying- what's that?"  
>"Oh this?" I said innocently as I pulled on the glove I'd just extracted out of my bag, smiling maliciously as I snapped it on, enjoying his bewildered stare," Just a little thing called 'persuasion'.<br>"Wha-?"

_SMACK._ I rushed forward, gloved hand out and fingers extended, the palm of my hand connecting with the center of his forehead and slipping out through the back of his head. His body keeled forward limply behind me. "Hmm, maybe I forced it out a little too roughly."  
>"ACCK! WHAT'D YOU DO TO ME? WHY AM I OVER THERE? YOU KILLED ME!" The Ichigo in front of me yelped, rubbing his forehead.<br>"I didn't' kill you," I snapped indignantly, crossing my arms, "I just forced your soul from your body."  
>"So you did!"<br>"_I didn't_ When you became a full Shinigami you also gained the ability to almost freely escape your material body as I just demonstrated." I pointed to his lifeless body, "And because your soul has vacated it your body is completely inactive, a coma if you will."  
>"YOU PUT ME IN A COMA?"<br>I ignored him, instead answering by pushing him toward the edge of the building, "Now go! Jump!"  
>"Have you lost your mind? If I jump off that I'll die! We're four stories up!"<br>"Have you lost _your_ mind? You're a spiritual entity! The only thing that can harm or kill Soul Reapers are zanpakto and hollow attacks!" I snorted with slight laughter, "And did you honestly think we use stairs?"

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><p>I blinked in surprise at his answer, as of late I had started to think my duty was becoming more and more like a job than a commitment of choice, I had forgotten the entirety of being a Shinigami: saving the lives of the dead not out of duty but out of choice and knowing that it was the right thing to do. When I had saved Ichigo and his family the night before it had not crossed my mind 'do I save him because it is my job' rather, 'I have to save him, he's in trouble'.<p>

"Very well then, if you choose to pay your - er, debt I'm going to need to train you in hollow hunting, it's sheer dumb luck that you've been able to survive the past two times."  
>"Whadd'ya mean dumb luck? I killed them didn't I?" Ichigo yelled loudly at me.<br>"Fool, who do you think told you the only way how to kill hollows? And stop screaming at me, it's rude!"  
>He grumbled inaudibly to himself before looking up grudgingly, "Fine. Teach me."<br>I smiled at him, unable to hold back the triumphant tone that tinged my voice, "Good choice. We start training tomorrow. We better get back to school before they find your corpse on the roof. . ." I added in an undertone as I looked down, hiding the guilt I felt cross my face.

"What was that?"  
>"Nothing! Let's just get back, before we're missed." I said quickly, dragging him away from the park by his sleeve, "Hurry up! Can you go any faster?"<br>"Hey, hey! Stop that! Everyone's gonna see me in this ridiculous getup!"  
>"Never mind that! No one can see you, you're a spiritual entity. You can only be seen by other spiritual entities!" I rolled my eyes at his presumption, there was a lot he needed to learn and I had a feeling that lessons would take up most of our time.<p> 


	2. Prototypes and Last Romances

_This entry wasn't as quite fail, dating back from September to Februrary 2010, this thread was my second shot into the world of Bleach RPing. First (and last) romantic installment I ever did (Ulquihime), my first fight scene, and the first time that I ever felt unsure in a character's point of view (not shown). I'm terrible at Orihime's character. Don't ever expect me to write her character on here. Ever. _

_If you're wondering why the timeline seems funky, it's that the pot revolved around the 'Rescue Squad' holding back a full year before going into Hueco Mundo. (And no one thought of that in canon, why?)_

_In other news this thread is the earliest prototype for what is now Adversus Solem ne Loquitor._

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><p>World of the Living, Karakura town, undisclosed location, Sat. 4 P.M.<p>

He gasped loudly, his breath rushing in and out of his lungs in uneven intervals rattling his lean muscular frame to his very bones. His eyes narrowed in frustration as the sweat dripped from his forehead and into his amber-brown eyes. _Damn, almost had it. . . _

"Again, Kurosaki." came a mildly amused voice from the shadows the abandoned warehouse cast into its interior. "I want that mask on your face for at least ten more minutes. You've already mastered that hollow of yours. You've got no excuse to be slacking off on this." Ichigo bit back the retort that longed to slip off his ever sharp tongue of his, arguing about the subject was going to get him nowhere closer to achieving that faraway goal.

Uttering a short incoherent roar for the sake of venting hours of pent up frustration he brought his hand to the right side of his face in a clearly practiced motion, his fingers half-curled into a talon-like fist before pulling down in a sharp slashing movement. The familiar pulse of darkly tainted aura flickered around him in black-red tendrils the skeletal bone white mask forming around his fingers and onto his face, the blood red patterns mimicking the path his fingers had traced and his eyes gold on black behind the narrow eye sockets. With a swirl of black and orange he slipped into a shunpo reappearing behind his sparring partner with a bone-jarring clash as the pitch black blade of his Bankai smashed into the former Shinigami's zanpaktou.

"Nice recovery, very fast." Shinji smirked, a taunt rather than a token of congratulatory praise, "But 'cha gonna have ta be faster than tha'" He shunpoed out of the interlock of their blades giving his sword an almost lazy flick, reappearing at the opposite end of the arena. "No what 'cha gonna do? Humor me." Ichigo answered with a warbled, echoing yell at the slight.

"Getsuga Tenshou!"

Shinji smirked at the angered backlash, still too immature, still too green. The crescent-shaped red tinged wave of energy cut through air hissing slightly as it burned through the dust the mock fight had kicked up. With a small "tch" of mingling amusement and disappointment before shunpoing last moment, the wall of energy smashing into the wall that previously stood behind him. Ichigo gave a strangled cough in a vain attempt to clear the dust that had settled in the back of his throat, glaring through the gritty cloud trying to discern his sparring partner through the chaos.

"Idiot. You nearly blew a hole in the wall."

"Wha-?" He turned his head over his shoulder to see Shinji glaring at him, the tip of his blade resting between his undefended shoulder blades.

"You died. I win, I think." he said with an unnecessary gesture towards his sword. "Pulling a risky move like that, loosing your head to a small insult, not watching your back, you get a D- for today's lesson. Go home class is done for today, come back when you're ready to learn."

As if on cue the mask cracked, unnaturally loud in the still silence, pieces falling with a soft clattering to the cement floors.  
>"Fine. Expect to see an improvement then."<p>

"I'll be waiting."

His Bankai dissipated with a current of unfelt wind as he made his way toward his body, still mulling over his idiotic mistakes, elementary fumbles. But he made no, word against Shinji's teachings; it was this or nothing. He slipped back into his body as naturally as he would a jacket, the idea had long since fazed him after so many forcible exits. But then again hadn't he been forced into the training by Shinji himself, terrified with the idea of being taken over body and soul by his hollow? Hadn't he been against it, declaring the he was not in fact part of the Vizored army, but a true shinigami? Then again he wasn't fully considered that either, him a human, shinigami, hollow hybrid. Different, no real classification. The only real deal he had made for this was his vow to protect, something that was now being put to the test yet again.

It had been a year, a full year since Orihime had been taken into the realm of hollows. A full year since the Soul Society had banned the entering of any shinigami, substitute or not to crossing into those realms. He had no choice but to accept Shinji's offer. The Vizoreds had so far been successful in helping him subdue his inner hollow and draw the mask without losing control, but. . .

He stopped, noting with vague surprise that he was now outdoors, the late afternoon air brushing the hair from his eyes, the setting sun making itself know with its vibrant colors. He sighed and continued on, hands in his pockets, he had not been able to keep his mask in a solid, whole piece for any longer than 5 minutes. As if something was holding him back. . .

_Want me t' fill yeh in with the details on tha' little problem, aibou?'_

* * *

><p>Ichigo's eyes narrowed slightly at the voice that echoed unbidden, unwanted through his mind, the sound that was so close to hated in its own right. The Vizords had told him the mastering was only meant to suppress the Hollow's control over his body and mind, not its echoing voice the echoed through his head like a perverse conscience. <em>'That you need to deal with on your own, that's not something we can help you through,'<em> Shinji had told him when he had asked of it. But the actual problem had never came up until now, for the past year the echoing parody of his own voice had been silent in his head since its forced submission, but its parting warning had been forever etched into the back of his mind ever since: _'If you even show the slightest sign of weakness I won't hesitate in knocking you off and crushing your skull!'_  
>The threat had never seemed real till now.<p>

'What do you want?'  
><em>'Tch, how rude of ya. Been gone for a year, don'cha miss me?'<em>  
>'No! Go away!'<br>_Temper, temper! Tha' hasn't changed one bit hasn't it? Idiot, I saw that blunder of yours earlier. If tha' was a real fight we'd both be dead! I told you before I won't stand for that, We won't go down on account of your obvious mistakes!'_  
>'My mistakes are my mistakes. And it's just me not 'we'.'<p>

The hollow gave a low maniac chuckle that slightly rattled Ichigo's thoughts. _'What a riot, 'me'? You alone? What a joke! Whose power do you think you're us'n! Mine! Have you be'n wondern' why tha' mask won' stay on tha' stupid face of yours? It's because I won' let ya! What them, Vizords have been teachn' yeh is not how to control and master me, it's to control me against my wishes! What you're doing is wresting my own power away from me, and I won' stand for that.' _  
>'For good reason. To protect the others from you.'<br>The hollow laughed again, tauntingly this time, _Did I ever directly say I'd hurt them? Tell me, did I EVER say that?'_  
>'But-'<br>_'Tell me, Ichigo. Answer me this, what is a hollow?'_the hollow interrupted, cutting off his objection. The question itself puzzled him, he knew very well what a hollow was but he would never expect the question to come from that voice. His mind reeled backward to Rukia's explanation: 'A soul that has lost its heart, that feeds on the souls of the living and the dead, to fill its own empty existence.'

The hollow gave an exasperated huff, as if Ichigo had missed the whole point of the question, _'But do I ever seem to have the want to do that? No. All hollows, even me, even the hollows that live inside your vizord people, were once people. But they all see us as the lost of humanity shinigami label us as. They were all taught that from the beginning. Tell me Ichigo, who gave you the definition of what a hollow is?'_  
>'Rukia did.'<br>_'Rukia did. A shinigami, a shinigami that was taught by Soul Society of the lack of senseless humanity souls who become hollows receive when they lose their hearts, which she in turn passed to you, who directed it toward me for being what I am, the severed half of our soul. I was once part of you, Ichigo. And still am. I still retain your will to protect, your memories. It's no better than was goes around in the world outside, people hate each other out there because they're different; they live different lives from themselves and they can't understand that. Do hollows who were once good people while they lived have a choice to be what they are? There's no white and black Soul Society sees souls to be, Wholes and Hollows, Hollows and Shinigami, Quincy and Shimigami, Shinigami and Visoreds. We're different but does there really need to be hate for those differences?'_

The Substitute badge shrieked in Ichigo's pocket rattling him to his senses, making him jump where he stood. 'I-'

_'Think about it. . . Aibou.'_


End file.
